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11:18
Welcome to the age of technology. The current era has been absolutely defined
by the development and the widespread use of digital technology.
Technology is now deeply integrated into nearly all aspects of human life. And as
part of this, so much of human life is spent online. One part of our life
experience is lived in the physical world and another is lived online. Our
online experience is customized and it is personalized and we prefer it this
way just like we prefer our life in the physical to be customized and
personalized. But there just so happens to be a massive downside to this. Online
algorithms are putting people out of reality totally. In today's episode, I'm
going to explain this in depth. [Music]
An online algorithm is a set of instructions that online platforms use
to analyze users as well as their online activity so as to understand their
preferences and then use that information to do things like
personalize content, suggest items, and rank search results. An online algorithm
works in terms of input, processing, and output. The input is that it takes user
data such as any personal info that you enter when you sign up to a site or your
location or your search and browsing history, your online purchases, your
likes, your gender, your age, your shares, your comments, um timing and
frequency of you being online, the watch time that you spent on a video post,
etc. Right? The processing is that they use calculations and rules to analyze
this data. And the output is that they produce a personalized experience for
you based off of it. To give you a few examples of this, let's say that you
went onto Instagram and watched a video post on, say, something like celiac
disease and then you liked the video. The algorithm will then start to show
you more videos about celiac disease and more ads for gluten-free products. or
say that you're traveling Florida with your phone. Due to GPS data and your
location-based online activity, suddenly all things Florida will start to appear
at the top of all search results on your search engines. And you're going to
suddenly see things about Florida when you never really had Florida on your
radar before. Or say that your online activity suggests that you have a
certain opinion about a political issue. The comments that you will see under
videos will change to be those that align with your opinion. Well, obviously
there are upsides to this. We get introduced to cool products that we
would want that we would otherwise miss out on. Um, if we love puppy videos,
guess what? We get to see more puppy videos. Crap you don't like and are not
interested in gets filtered out. We see what's more relevant and engaging, which
saves us tons of time and effort trying to find what it is that we want to see
and need. By analyzing our data to provide relevant information, it makes
decision-m easier for us as well. It also helps us to connect with
like-minded people. If there are threats or if there are problems in our area,
we're immediately informed about it, which keeps us safer.
You get the point, right? Like all of this increases our sense of satisfaction
basically when we are online. And at the very same time, there is a very
significant problem that algorithms are creating.
Algorithms are creating bubble realities built for one. Algorithms act as a
filter, a shaper, and a personalizer. Everything that exists online, such as
news and information, opinions, products, opportunities, everything is
being filtered, shaped, and personalized through your own individual algorithm.
Because this is the case, you are not seeing, hearing, feeling, or coming to
know reality. Instead, you are seeing, hearing, feeling, and coming to know a
reality that has been customuilt for you. Most especially based on your own
preferences and interests and opinions. There's nothing objective about it is
what that means. And so, the algorithm that exists on the platforms through
which you consume information is in fact preventing true conscious awareness.
algorithms and the way that each one of us responds to the content fed to us
according to our algorithm is creating a human society that is deeply out of
reality. Algorithms have created a a kind of
self-reinforcing feedback loop. To give you an example of what I mean, say you
post something online and this gets lots of engagement online. The algorithm is
then going to promote it due to this high level of engagement. This leads to
even more engagement, which leads to even more promotion of it. More and more
people will see this post. Or to give you another example, um imagine that
you're afraid of snakes and you come across a video about a viper that's
responsible for killing the most people on Earth and you watch that full video
from start to finish. This increases your fear of snakes. It also tells your
algorithm that this is very engaging for you. So, you see another video about how
to protect yourself from snakes, and you watch that one from start to finish,
too. Right? After all, um you're really afraid of snakes, so this is really
great info for you. This basically causes your algorithm to show you even
more dangerous snake related content. Pretty soon, you are more terrified than
ever before about snakes, and you are totally convinced that the whole world
is full of them. A self-reinforcing feedback loop is a
cycle of escalation. Algorithms also fuel cognitive biases. Try to make it
simple with regards to this conversation. You may have a bias
towards or against one thing or another thing such as a political party versus
another one, one racial group versus another one. Well, your algorithm will
reflect this prejudice rather than challenge it. Or you may already hold a
certain perspective. if your algorithm was going to show you things that will
reinforce that perspective as well as show you posts and comments from other
people who also share that perspective leading you to believe that everyone
agrees with you. Algorithm creates kind of ideological segregation like you
would not believe. Algorithms also create conformity effects. People are
are a very social species, right? They want to belong. They want to fit in.
They don't want to miss out. They want to be at the top of the social
hierarchy. As such, they tend to adopt perspectives, beliefs, behaviors,
preferences, and trends simply because other people are doing the same. They
may even do this despite the opposition of their actual individual truths.
Algorithms can and do boost this herdlike behavior to a whole new level
because they take user data and engagement metrics to promote popular
content and trends. Better hope those trends harm nothing and no one, right?
Algorithms don't only reflect our preferences, things that tend to make us
feel good or better. They reflect what captures our attention and what applies
to us. If we recently got a divorce and our algorithm brings up a video of a
woman who got a divorce, too, that's talking about how terrible men are, and
we click like because we're in that kind of mood, we're going to see more videos
and posts like it. More and more and more negative posts about men and
relationships. And as a result, we are going to feel worse and worse and worse
and worse about men and worse about relationships. Our algorithm can get us
into a total downward spiral and put us in a dystopian reality that is
disconnected from the full scope of reality every bit as much as it could be
used to create an upward spiral, puts us in a kind of polyiana reality that's
totally disconnected from the full truth of reality. These algorithms are
extremely dangerous when you pair them with the fact that social media, which
is where most people on Earth get their information today, is the wild west when
it comes to fake videos and images and misleading and outright false
information. The speed at which this disinformation spreads between
individuals and is propagated in the mainstream media is mindblowing.
Algorithms are also extremely dangerous when you realize that they could be used
to show you what the people with the power to show you things want to show
you. Things that they want you to become interested in, information they want you
to see, as well as keeping you from seeing the things they don't want to
show you, information they don't want you to see, products they don't want you
to know about. They can be a tool used for the best interest of those looking
to control you. The reality is that each one of our algorithms is separating us
from each other. It's creating these little narcissistic bubbles for each one
of us. It's putting us into parallel perceptual realities where there is a
drastic difference between the reality that one person is perceiving versus the
reality another one is perceiving. This is already a problem for people and it's
just getting 10 times worse in this era of social media. This is a direct
affront to the mastery of relationships and integration. Rather, it's a recipe
for separation, isolation, polarization, and opposition. To learn more about
parallel perceptual realities and about why they are so dangerous, you can watch
my video that's titled The Most Dangerous Parallel Reality. Having the
world at the touch of your fingers is the promise that the online world offers
us. The internet could very well be the solution to the geographical reality
bubbles that we lived our life in before the internet. But algorithms are
contributing to this problem rather than acting as the remedy for the problem.
The idea of an online algorithm may not scare you very much until you really get
that human beings make decisions and take actions based off of the
information that they see. Our behavior is a byproduct of the reality that we
perceive. This means our online algorithm and the bubble reality it
creates is severely influencing us every day. It is dictating how we think. It is
dictating what we do. It's dictating the choices that we make. It is so important
for people to know that the information, the reality being presented at them
online is not a true reflection of objective reality thanks to algorithms.
Rather than believing in the perceptual reality that your own algorithm is
creating for you, you need to keep reminding yourself that this perceptual
reality that you are seeing online is merely a kind of reflection of you. It's
an online picture of you that was painted by digital tech and it was built
to be your own personal echo chamber. We are in a day and age where we need to
consciously reach for alternative points of view. We need to consciously open our
minds. We need to consciously take a step back and think about information
and content that we are seeing, not just hook, line, and sinker it. We need to
consciously influence our own algorithms. We need to think about the
why behind us seeing what we are seeing online and the why behind us not seeing
what we are not seeing online. Especially in the world that we are
currently living in. Never forget that today what you are seeing online is not
a reflection of reality. It is a reflection of your algorithm.
Have a good week. [Music]